An article from America that makes for an interesting comparison.
Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all
“It’s about numbers being large and it’s also about people being desperate.
“Every single person who comes through here has nowhere else to go … people have exhausted every option before they come here. Believe you me, unless you really had to, you wouldn’t do this.
“I’m looking at our numbers and they’re higher than last year. I just think people live in chronic poverty – economic recovery is certainly not touching these people.”
My BF thinks that if rugby were invented today and tried to be rolled out as a ‘sport’ in schools, it would be seen as ritualistic child abuse and wouldn’t get anywhere.
Yep. Out of the mayoralty, straight into the John Key cabinet. Oh, is that not what you meant? Fair enough, he’s really not in the league of the real crooks, is he?
Time for John Key and the rest of the National Caucus to resign. They’re morally bankrupt after after lying to the citizens of NZ and giving our wealth to their cronies such as Warner Bros, Rio Tinto etc etc.
Ugh, made the mistake of reading Kiwibog post about Brown and fell across this vileness. It’s about ethnic communities wanting a say on councils a la Maori.
“This is the problem with special privileges for one race. Others then want the same.”
Farrar isn’t stupid so I assume he does know that there is a very good reason not to treat Maori like other ‘races’,
I kinda think most Fox presenters lie like they breath; it just comes natural to them. The interesting question for me would be whether she thinks modern Palestinians are white, I think she’d kinda struggle with that concept.
I kinda think most Fox presenters lie like they breath; [sic] it just comes natural to them.
What you have written is perfectly true, Te Reo. But it’s not just Fox News. Have you watched the BBC in the last ten years? Or CNN? Or Al Jazeera? Or Television One? Or TV3?
Admittedly it has the most obnoxious stars (O’Reilly, Hannity, etc.) but essentially Fox differs from the rest of them because it is shriller, not because it is substantially more dishonest.
So does Television New Zealand. What justification other than good looks is there for inflicting viewers with that grinning, nodding Thunderbird puppet Simon Dallow?
“..In the week that Uruguay legalises cannabis – the 78-year-old explains why he rejects the ‘world’s poorest president’ label.
If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity – it is José Mujica – Uruguay’s president –
– who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse –
– donates the vast bulk of his salary to social projects –
– flies economy class –
– and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle.
But the former guerrilla fighter is clearly disgruntled by those who tag him “the world’s poorest president” and –
– much as he would like others to adopt a more sober lifestyle –
– the 78-year-old has been in politics long enough to recognise the folly of claiming to be a model for anyone.
“If I asked people to live as I live – they would kill me” – Mujica said – during an interview in his small but cosy one-bedroom home set amid chrysanthemum fields outside Montevideo.
The president is a former member of the Tupamaros guerrilla group –
– which was notorious in the early 1970s for bank robberies – kidnappings –
– and distributing stolen food and money among the poor..”
Just for those that are blind and will not cross the divide….. This is on Whale Oil this morning, read it and weep.
Quote:
“Consistency would be nice.
When National won the election on a platform including partial asset sales, the Green Taliban said that the fact National didn’t get more than 50% of the eligible vote, they didn’t have a mandate.
Flegin, one of our commenters puts the same theory to the test on the referendum result.
So basically going by the Green/Labour method of vote counting there is no mandate to cease asset sales as only 30% of the eligible voters are against it.
I’m sure a blogger with Whale’s journalistic styles wouldn’t make a claim without fact-checking it and linking to a source, especially if his whole argument rested on it.
Incidentally Dunney Boy, like Shonkey, you can put it in your pipe and smoke it! Remember you sold out and voted for asset sales. Guess what? Two thirds of your electorate tells you they don’t agree with it:
Your name is well chosen. Of course, the 2011 election was not about asset sales; polls show that even most National Party supporters oppose the selling off of our public assets.
This poll is specific—and irrefutable. And it signifies doom for the National Party—as you are only too aware, in spite of your hopeful defiance.
Fucking git is right. Focus on the big numbers nobody cares that one or two from very electorate voted. As has been repeated elsewhere, I wonder how many operations $9M would have funded, how many socialist school lunches, how many……..
When you get to be Government, buy the fucking shares back. But them back. In the mean time, get over it Git.
“How can he claim a mandate to sell our assets when the majority of New Zealanders voted at the last election for parties opposed to asset sales, and the vast majority of New Zealanders continue to oppose asset sales in every poll on the issue?”
is not the same argument as
“National has no mandate to sell assets given they polled less than 50% of eligible votes.”
“Is it really possible for anyone to be that stupid?”
They’re not stupid. They’re disingenuous fucks who don’t like being shown they’re on the wrong side on this, so they’re twisting shit every chance they get.
Not so sure about their groupies like Dumrse, who can only ever copy and paste from their blog-gods. He just might believe what he writes (sorry, steals).
Fucks we are then. The assets have been sold and the remainder will follow. Get the fuck over it.
What you can do now is plan to buy then back. PLAN TO BUY THEM BACK. You’re going to have to wait a while but at least you can start to plan. Tell Cuntlips to make the announcement next week, then your 225,000 Nats that voted NO, will switch sides to the left and you are quids in. However, don’t hold your breath waiting otherwise you will turn BLUE.
..we could go with my idea of partial-nationalisation..
..this is where the govt/state takes a 51% stake in crucial industries/services..
..(the supermarket-duopoly/booze-pushers/gambling/oil/banking being the obvious/first to be targeted..)
..those shares will be paid for by the state..(no theft..)..with the payments for those shares to be paid over a set time..(from profits/w.h.y….)
..the benefits from this policy are obvious..
..the common-good suddenly swings into major consideration/a factor in the actions/operations of these entities..
(and with the food duopoly..obesity-fighting initiatives suddenly face far less (profit-driven) obstacles from that duopoly/food-industries..(with manufacturers told..make it healthy..or we won’t buy it from you..etc etc..)
..the other listed entities would also benefit from that new common-good imperative..
..and of course..the beauty of this 51% partial-nationalisation plan/idea is that by leaving 49% in private-holding..
..you retain the commercial/operating expertise of the existing infrastructures..
..it’s basically turning the justifications for partial-privatisation upside down..
..and in doing so removes most of the rightwing objections to such a schema..
phillip u
If business can buy up another business using leverage, why can’t a government do that also. It doesn’t need to make big profits. DTB would say it doesn’t need to make any. But say they want to work within a price system established by the market, but drag it down a bit and then put any profit back to the government which balances that against the loan it first raised with itself until it is zero. Is that your idea? Sounds doable.
Did you hear the guy talking about bitcoin this a.m on Radionz? Sounds like Green $ with some hard intelligence behind it, which makes it more durable than the rather bendy version that can arise out of the actions of half-economic-educated idealists who demonstrate that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And can muck up a good idea by straying from the mission and finding it hard to make a decision that is relevant to the circumstances when needed.
Didn’t hear the thing this morning, but everyone talking about how it’s value is skyrocketing, therefore it’s awesome, don’t grok that what they’re looking at is deflation.
Holding bitcoins for the last year would have made you money; spending them, not so much.
Abuse is dmrse’s concept of reasoned debate.
He needs to educate himself on so many fronts.
Lesson 1 Don’t rely on Rw blogs as you only Source of news.
Impostor at Madiba memorial has a violent past and continues to offend
So why did those Stepford South African stooges APPLAUD him?
“Impostor at Mandela memorial has a criminal history that includes charges of murder, rape, kidnapping and theft”—Daily Mail, 13 December 2013
The man who “led the tributes to Nelson Mandela” is a criminal who presides over a vast network of illegal kidnapping, extrajudicial executions, and torture chambers; has repeatedly endorsed criminal actions by violent gangs and militias in Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other jurisdictions; and has personally participated in the traducing and persecution of dissidents, truth-tellers and journalists in his own country and overseas.
The South African news site eNCA was able to establish these facts in less than 48 hours, posing serious questions about the security arrangements at Tuesday’s memorial and why the government failed to pick up Obama’s past.
“During the memorial, it emerged on social media networks that Obama wasn’t a fit person to speak at Mandela’s memorial and that his words during that historic event didn’t make any sense.
“The story went global—but Obama was portrayed as a statesman while the sign language interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie was selected as a convenient scapegoat and relentlessly portrayed as a joke by Obama-cultists from around the world.
“I ESTEEM Sir Geoffrey!”
David Slack’s foolish endorsement of an infamous stooge The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Jim Mora, David Slack, Sally Wenley
Today’s pre-show segment with Susan Baldacci was notable for the lack of depraved Red China-style derision of government-selected victims, the lack of insultingly juvenile survey findings, and the lack of host Jim Mora saying “according to the New York Times.” The first half of the program proper was taken up with the Len Brown report; Murray McCully’s squeeze Jane Clifton even managed to be fair and reasonable in her comments. So, compared to some of the dire recent episodes of this program, things looked promising.
After the news it was time for the “Soapbox” segment. Sally Wenley, who is a paraplegic, told a heartbreaking and infuriating story of her mistreatment at the hands of Air New Zealand. Perhaps our national carrier’s CEO should look to fixing up basic standards of service in this country rather than going on television to assure everyone that everything was fine—“no danger at all!”—during a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
So far so good. But then THIS happened…..
MORA: David Slack, what have you been thinking about? DAVID SLACK: Well, I want to recommend a book! MORA: Oh really? DAVID SLACK: Yes. I’ve just read Reform: A Memoir by Sir Geoffrey Palmer. He used to be my teacher. I ESTEEM him! He’s a very, uh, energetic and able and industrious person…. He’s very good at taking a complex story and telling it in a concise and clear way. …[continues vapouring on about the qualities of “Sir” Geoffrey for what seems like a very long time]…. He’s, ahhhh, he’s done a lot of good for this country and I thoroughly recommend it!
COMING UP SOON: Why that brief encomium by David Slack was one of the stupidest, most morally bankrupt few minutes of airtime this year.
Palmer’s humiliation has been in the public realm for the last three years. It is studiously ignored by the media here, but it is easy to read all about it.
And a more detailed demolition of the compliant, highly amenable Palmer and his chums by Norman Finkelstein in ‘Torpedoing the Law: How the Palmer Report Justified Israel’s Naval Blockade of Gaza’.
Yes but David Slack is usually excellent on The Panel compared to some of the muppets that appear. And Palmer has been excellent in the media on, for instance, the ill-fated RMA reforms. (Anyone know what is happening with these?)
David Slack is usually excellent on The Panel…
True enough, but endorsing Palmer was a grave lapse in judgement.
….compared to some of the muppets that appear.
That, my friend, is damning him with the faintest praise possible.
And Palmer has been excellent in the media on, for instance, the ill-fated RMA reforms.
Yes, he is a learned man who has done much of value for this country and written some excellent books. I’ve read them all and admired them. But the sad fact is: Palmer is a moral coward, and has been condemned by everyone who knows anything about that 2010 massacre of peace activists in international waters that he served to justify.
..it was a long rant from this leslie..and then mora goes ‘see you all next week’..
..did you leave the room for that one..?
No, Phillip, I did not miss it—but my focus was on exposing David Slack’s slackness.
I, like you and no doubt many others, listened in horror to that notoriously anti-welfare “libertarian” Lindsay Mitchell sounding off. I took notes, and will work it up into a presentable form. Keep watching…..
So there must be something I not getting. Chorus own the copper, Chrous will own the broadband. So Chrous can save money connecting whole streets at a time and ending copper (like freeview has terrestrial). Now Chorus is hit by low copper prices and high NZ dollar, meaning it didn’t hedge its position. So am I not getting that Chorus problems don’t stem from just poor management, and that management closeness with the government, please, can someone explain how the pricing of copper connections effect Chorus, Chorus has the contract to move to fibre, naff said. Anyone wanting just a landline just gets a fibre landline only plan for the same price. Duh.
Because the stupid idiots aren’t taking out the copper and putting in the fibre. They’re leaving the copper in there to give people “choice” and then charging massive amounts to be connected to the fibre network. Most people will stay with the copper connection because they won’t be able to afford the inflated price for fibre.
The whole lot has been done very badly but that’s to be expected of privatised services that have been run down to provide higher profit.
I heard the other day that the next emerging technology will use copper, so there will be another whole round of new products and shifting costs to pass onto consumers in the future.
VDSL is the best you can easily get, and you need to be close to an Exchange.
New copper standard that makes VDSL look slow. Actually, it makes our fibre roll-out look slow. As you say though, highly limited: The drawback with G.fast is that it will only work over short distances, so 1Gbps will only be possible at distances of up to about 100 meters. The technology is being designed to work at distances up to 250 meters, though transmission speed is slower at that distace.
Probably not worth the effort.
No idea what crap Draco is talking about.
The best option as far as telecommunications in NZ go was to have left it as a state monopoly. This would have had fibre being rolled out to the home as a matter of course rather than needing government to fund it. IMO, it would have started about 10 years ago. This roll-out would have been as a replacement of the copper local loop. When finished there would have been no copper left in the ground (quite literally).
What we’ve got instead is that the fibre is being rolled out in competition with the copper network. This is going to split funding (both the copper and the fibre will need to pay for itself plus profit) making fibre far more expensive than it should be while the regulators push the price of copper down. The pushing down of the price of copper limits the income that Chorus has to invest in the fibre network.
Contrary to ideological belief of the RWNJs in National, Act, Labour and economists, it was never going to be the private owners who paid for the investment – it was always going to be us. All that privatisation has done is allow a few people to clip the ticket while providing nothing at all.
Pushing copper technologies almost makes sense as it would be cheaper and faster to roll out than fibre because the copper is already in the ground. That said, copper deteriorates which means it’s going to need to be replaced at some point and the limitations of copper mean that it will never meet what fibre is already capable of. A lot of the copper in the ground in NZ has been there 20+ years which means that it’s due for replacement and the best option would be to replace it with fibre.
If there’s nothing there ATM then rolling out fibre is the better option.
Gerry brownlee and national hang your heads in shame. Have a read of his Christmas card to schools wishing them a merry xmas and a great 2014 fir national.
the main diff betw asset sales ref and smacking ref is the second was hijacked by so much false and misleading information. This one was straigtforward. Anyone who accuses a party in nz of being the taliban loses all credibility for its content. Those who repeat it? The same.
Can you really say the economy is going to have a “cracker year” if wage growth remains stagnant, a quarter of our children remain in poverty, and no one except landlords and rentiers can afford a home in our largest city? When Gaynor talks of a cracker year, he really means “A cracker year for the 1%”.
Justice, due process, requires that people are forced to make the choice, compensation or criminal proceedings, that’s just patently the corruption of justice.
Can you really say the economy is going to have a “cracker year” if wage growth remains stagnant, a quarter of our children remain in poverty, and no one except landlords and rentiers can afford a home in our largest city?
No, the only thing that can be said is that the economy will continue to fail.
As I keep saying, human culture in the west has been largely replaced by corporate culture.
The truth is, Lululemon has chanced on one of the enduring principles of retail: there’s probably no better way for some brands to keep women as customers than to shame them. Insecurity is a big money-maker. Happy people don’t buy things.
Previously, Wilson had said that larger sizes cost more to produce and other reports had suggested that Lululemon had hidden its larger sizes away from the sanctity of open store shelves.
It’s a simple equation: clothes confer status, and so it helps to make people feel low-status to encourage them to buy more clothes – and to pay more for those garments…Self-loathing women are a godsend for lagging holiday sales. Retailers know those are the droids they’re looking for.
How many women don’t wear make-up. Theatre make-up is used to enhance features so actors faces, features and expressions can be seen from a distance. Is this the same drive in the average woman on an everyday basis? If it was just part of a dress-up culture, it’s use demonstrating a time for some play and theatrics and leisure fun, that would be healthy. But not when there is a demand to constantly paint a soft mask over the face, disguising and disdaining the natural features, the real person who is both very ordinary and similarly very unique and special, yet made to be constantly aware of a standard of appearance that person’s face and figure will rarely if ever attain.
There is a huge amount of money made by corporates playing on women’s feeling that the way they look is important in establishing their right to be present on the earth. Women must appear attractive. It is an unwritten law. And taken for granted is that ‘attractive’ rarely is just the ‘unvarnished’ appearance, the clean, ordinary, open-faced, positive and relaxed look of someone happy with themselves.
The paint and colour merchants want to play on women’s lack of happy sense of their own worth and attractiveness. So in womens magazines the beautiful woman must be enhanced with air brushing, the woman with ‘good bones’ but a too-ordinary face has cosmetics applied to enhance her face, which isn’t acceptable as natural.
An actress has recently been in the news for pointing out how many of her published images had been air-brushed. This was about her body shape not her face but the same oppression of anti-woman demand by shape-shifting corporates and money-chasing image controllers applies. She said look at me on this page, my legs have never been so slim, nor my hips etc. Good on her. The societal acceptance of the hegemony of this necessary enhancement of women for acceptance means that it is pervasive. You’re soaking in it.
Why does Radio NZ ask Lindsay Mitchell to comment on welfare?
In fact, why does ANYONE ask her to comment? The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Jim Mora, David Slack, Sally Wenley
DAVID SLACK: Sir Geoffrey Palmer… used to be my teacher. I esteem him. He’s a very, uh, energetic and able and industrious person…. He’s very good at taking a complex story and telling it in a concise and clear way. ……. He’s, ahhhh, he’s done a lot of good for this country and I thoroughly recommend it!
JIM MORA: Thank you. Lindsay Mitchell with us shortly, but just before she comes on: there have been some more poverty claims today. School principals are citing deprivation in the homes. We spoke this week with Dr Elizabeth Craig who firmly opined there is real poverty. [1] What is your opinion, before we talk to Lindsay, who has been commenting on welfare for many years?
Sally Wenley blamed the greed of landlords. David Slack climbed off the dark horse he had been riding called “Praise of Cowards” and re-mounted his normal steed, a noble animal called “Sensible and Reasonable Commentary” [That’s enough tortured racehorse metaphors.—Ed.] and argued that whatever the word we use, there are kids who are living in conditions that are not good for them. He then did something most un-Palmerish: he actually showed a bit of backbone, and chided Mora for sending him an insultingly simple-minded article about welfare that had been written by some ACT lout.
Quite possibly the ACT halfwit had plagiarised that article from Jim’s next guest…
JIM MORA: Lindsay Mitchell, good afternoon. LINDSAY MITCHELL: Yeah hi! MORA: Is it true that we have a poverty problem in New Zealand? LINDSAY MITCHELL:[baffled sigh to indicate great moral seriousness] I, uhhhh, we need to take a step back. ….[further pause for effect]…. Why do we have this problem? Did we have it thirty or forty years ago? ….[embarks on long and wandery discourse pretty much identical to what is inflicted on NewstalkZB listeners every weekday morning from 8:30 to noon]…. One in every five babies born in New Zealand will be on a benefit by the time they are sixteen. MORA: Are you saying we should address the problem of these people having children? Is that what you are saying? LINDSAY MITCHELL:[pause for effect] Yes. ….[pause for effect]….That is what I’m saying. ….[sigh]…. I tell my own children: “You’ve got a life! Don’t have children when you’re sixteen or seventeen!”
This odious woman would have carried on for several hours and no doubt often does, but mercifully the strains of Carmina Burana were welling up to bid an end to her John Banks-style ranting. Anyone with an interest in monitoring extreme right wing bullshit should visit her website, which is replete with articles by such intellectual luminaries as Roger Kerr (R.I.P.), Stephen Franks and, perhaps the most damning of all, the unhinged racist—and National Party strategist—John Ansell.
All of her commentary is shallow and extremely biased. Here, by way of example, is her most recent post, about the referendum:
“A third say YES. Good result. Probably reasonably representative. A minority of National voters didn’t want the sales. Nothing to see here. Waste of time and money.”
That is peremptory, dismissive, arrogant commentary. Remember that Lindsay Mitchell promotes herself as a “welfare commentator”. But even more lamentable than this woman’s lack of conscience and judgement is the fact that Jim Mora’s producers at Radio NZ National use her to commentate on welfare issues, just like they ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to comment on justice issues.
Morrissey That is peremptory, dismissive, arrogant commentary. Remember that Lindsay Mitchell promotes herself as a “welfare commentator”. But even more lamentable than this woman’s lack of conscience and judgement is the fact that Jim Mora’s producers at Radio NZ National use her to commentate on welfare issues, just like they ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to comment on justice issues.
Your tax dollars at work.
That states well how many RW commentators come over. And I do not agree with the soft mattress fall-back used by Radionz when choosing who it will speak to for ‘expert, thoughtful’ opinions. Well put Morrissey.
I listened to les beaux Mitchell and Mora. I must say my spine stiffened somewhat with the business of – “Yes we should address the problem of ‘these people’ having children”.
Xox,
Lessa and Lessa from Jim Mora. ‘Afternoons’ is becoming a must to avoid. Baldacci, Mora and Co. are getting more clueless, precious, right leaning, and trivial by the week. Jim tells me he is trying to improve the program. It’s not working Jim. Wipe the slate clean and start again. RNZ is the only independent, non commercial quality broadcaster and we deserve the highest quality journalism that a frozen budget allows.
Encryption experts have complained for years that the most commonly used technology, known as A5/1, is vulnerable and have urged providers to upgrade to newer systems that are much harder to crack. Most companies worldwide have not done so, even as controversy has intensified in recent months over NSA collection of cellphone traffic, including of such world leaders as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The extent of the NSA’s collection of cellphone signals and its use of tools to decode encryption are not clear from a top-secret document provided by former contractor Edward Snowden. But it states that the agency “can process encrypted A5/1” even when the agency has not acquired an encryption key, which unscrambles communications so that they are readable.
Xox
Transparency International Review of NZ is laughable and inaccurate. But it’s all we’ve got.Bit like poverty stats, homeless stats, productivity stats, in fact, probably all Government (pseudo) stats. Basically cow crap.
And 58% part voted National in 2011.
Lots of Nats disaffected by this government’s fire sale of our nation’s assets.
Gerry Brownlee has problems in Christchurch.
Just had an unpleasant experience seeing how smug, complacent middle-class liberalism facilitates the far right at Public Address. Feeling somewhat disillusioned, but wiser.
I’ve discovered what middle-class liberalism means: tolerance of far rightists because “even though we might disagree with them, we need to hear them” while anyone who points out their essential evil gets “Oh dear, that’s rude, what’s for pudding?”
…this is why it is NOT advisable to have dinner with the middle- class…. ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie ‘..if one feels like kicking around shit or having a meaningful conversation
“Love” that film (quote marks because it makes me queasy – as it’s meant to). It’s an excellent political parable with the dinner party as a metaphor for discourse – ostensibly polite, but an exercise in consumption in reality. Michael Gambon and Helen Mirren, excellent!
AFAIK, without googling, Peter Greenaway has become pretty disillusioned with the film business and concentrates on other media such as art installations these days.
Sorta right there Rhino’. My experience is that good “liberal” people (voted ShonKey ’08 if not “11) who for the look of it claim to but don’t actually give a fuck about else than self really delight in the business of focusing on objection to the way a message is put across. Thus avoiding addressing the essential point. Enables them to wimp out while still masquerading as enlightened and knowing. Dumb self-satisfied high-equity or freehold in Herne Bay aging yuppie wankers !
I have a mate 60+ alpha type who’s never invited back to some places because he’s too real. One delightful example – a guy owning and operating some light industry in East Tamaki which employs 29 Polynesians. Turns up to one of the smartest streets in Devonport in a latish model Porsche for the smartest dinner party where there are namecards at the dinner table I swear.
In polite chatter Porsche driver proceeds to mock the “boongers” upon whom he claims to shine merely by employing them. My mate, large, fit, and pretty trim for his 60 years gives him the works about the “fuck’n pyramid you sit atop !” And “your fuck’n Porsche out there is down to those boongers mate !”.
Well, many liberal pearls clutched and never invited back about which he’s never unpleased. I really respect that bizo in my mate whom I’ve known 50+ years. It’s real stuff and needs not an ounce of rationalisation or mitigation. Arseholes deserve to get the works !
Wiser and sadder to see how shallow and naive the integrity of some people is, I have to say (same to fender, below). The Goebbels wannabe Hoots has found a comfortable niche it seems.
If you guys are interested, I’m preparing a film treatment of that lamentable little episode over at Public Address. I’ll post it here first. Working title: Mr Brown’s Boys.
“When is the right time to reveal an ‘inconvenient truth’ – that neo-liberal ANC President Nelson Mandela championed ‘privatisation’ – not ‘nationalisation’?
It seems that locally, nationally and internationally, people are largely unaware of this following quote from ANC President Nelson Mandela? :
“Privatisation is the fundamental policy of the ANC, and is going to be implemented …Just because we [government and COSATU] have a working relationship, and they [COSATU] helped put us in power, does not mean that we are happy with everything they say.’ 49
49 Sunday Times, 26 May 1996.
(COSATU – Congress of South African Trade Unions)
How many people know that in 1994, millions of black South Africans voted for the ANC, which swept into power on the following promises / policies:
“The ANC’s 1994 national election campaign was not only premised on delivering democracy and freedom to the citizens of South Africa but was also strongly rooted in the memory of apartheid’s denial of basic resources to black people.
Riding on the crest of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (the ANC’s proposed economic plan for the post-liberation era based on redistribution of the country’s wealth to the poor), the ANC promised to right the wrongs of the past and to give the people what had long been denied them.
Election posters blazing with the black green and gold party colours screamed out to the poor:
“A better life for all!”, “Free basic services!”. “Jobs for all!”,
with a promise to redistribute the wealth accumulated by the apartheid government, white business and the white population.
The poor, trusting the rhetoric, voted in their millions to put the ANC into power as the first democratic government.
When the ANC capitulated to the charms of a market-driven economy, the party ditched clauses from the Freedom Charter and the RDP and emerged with a macro-economic policy that was a ‘fairly standard neoliberal one”. 1
[1 Adam Habib and Vishnu Padaychee (2000), “Economic Policy and Power Relations in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy” in World Development, (vol.28, no.2)3. ]
The choice of a market-driven policy that would ensure maximum profit accumulation by the already rich was made in full knowledge of South Africa’s stratified economy. …. ”
[CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY RASSP RESEARCH REPORTS 2005, VOL.1
Saranel Benjamin, Durban, September 2005]
But, on the watch of President Nelson Mandela, without consultation or democratic mandate, there was a 180 degree ‘U turn’, when the ANC adopted a neo-liberal agenda:
PRIVATISING SOUTH AFRICA BY DICTUM: A REVIEW
Michael J. Meyer
(Department of Development Studies, University of North West)
1. Introduction
Mindful of the experience in the Third World in general, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)in particular, where in some instances the privatisation of state assets was turned into a farce because of corruption, nepotism patronage and insider dealing, in South Africa (SA) the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) insisted from the outset that the privatisation process is shrouded in secrecy and should be made transparent.
As a consequence COSATU objected to the African National Congress’s (ANC) adoption of a privatisation policy at its December 1994 Conference, which was endorsed without any form of consultation with the labour movement -the ANC’s strongest social partner.’ In order to forestall any unilateral action on the part of the ANC the labour movement insisted on participation and transparency, calling on the ANC to be accountable, not only to its allies but also the masses on any decision taken on the issue of privatisation.
1 COSATU 6th National Congress: 16-19 September 1997, Book 4, Resolutions, Discussion
Documents (1997), p. 33. ”
The ANC’s mechanism for these neo-liberalism reforms – was the GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) policy:
“The Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy drew from the main tenets of neoliberalism as installed globally with the main objective of creating an environment which enables maximum private investment.
Hence GEAR proposed cuts in government spending to reduce the deficit, the introduction of tax concessions for big business, a reduction of tariff barriers (in the clothing, textile,leather and car manufacturing industries), the privatization of government assets (which included the provision of basic services), a reduction in state welfare programmes and a more flexible labour market. Adelzadeh 3
[3 In Hein Marais (2001), South Africa: Limits to Change, (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press) 163] and Saul both agree that the ANC had “come full circle, back to the late apartheid government’s Normative Economic Model.
For the central premise of South Africa’s economic policy now could clearly be clearer: ask not what capital can do for South Africa, but what South Africa can do for capital…”4
[4 Saul 12]
The ANC pushed for GEAR, arguing that the policy framework could help achieve economic growth, attract foreign investment , boost employment and increase socio-economic equality. the verdict so far has been resoundingly negative:
“GEAR has been associated with massive deindustrialization and job-shedding through reduced tariffs on imports, capital flight as as controls over investments are relaxed, attempts to downsize the costs and size of the public sector, and real cuts in education, health and social welfare spending”. 5
[5 Saul 13 ]
This neo-liberal economic framework precludes the the development of any form of social security system for the growing band of unemployed, informal sector workers and the poor. GEAR argues for a decline in state expenditure and, in keeping with global trends, this translates into cutting back on state welfare programmes.
The harsh effects of the GEAR policy have been felt most by those who came into the era of democracy poor. These were black, working class people.
Most were black, women, urban and rural. GEAR has left the poor more vulnerable to increasing poverty and has debilitated most workers by decimating the industries they work in. …”
How / when did Nelson Mandela shift from supporting ‘freedom’ to ‘free markets’?
“When you think about Nelson Mandela, you probably think about freedom — free people, free country, free speech. What may be overshadowed by Mr. Mandela’s extraordinary legacy was his complicated journey to support free markets and a free economy.
When Mr. Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he told his followers in the African National Congress that he believed in the nationalization of South Africa’s main businesses.
“The nationalization of the mines, banks and monopoly industries is the policy of the A.N.C., and a change or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable,” he said at the time.
Two years later, however, Mr. Mandela changed his mind, embracing capitalism, and charted a new economic course for his country. …. ”
What a coup for the global elite to have this world-famous anti-apartheid icon, now promoting pro-corporate policies!
Do you really think that Nelson Mandela’s face would be adorning the front pages of the global corporate media, if he had continued to support ‘nationalisation’ instead of privatisation?
Why do you think so many of the global elite were at his funeral, and had so many nice things to say about him?
Yes – Nelson Mandela’s policy of ‘truth and reconciliation’ may have helped prevent a racial bloodbath, but how much did it also help put a ‘lid’ on the fightback against the ANC’s ‘economic apartheid’?
It feels that in ‘blowing the whistle’ and telling the truth, I am not just ‘swimming against the tide’, but standing up to a tsunami.
So be it.
‘Truth is truth’.
In so doing, I believe I am keeping faith with the millions of black South Africans, in whose interests thousands of New Zealanders took to the streets, to help stretch the ‘thin blue line’, to try and make the 1981 Springbok Tour ‘unpoliceable’.
We didn’t march down the street in order for the lot of the black South African majority to be worse off – for racial apartheid to be replaced with ‘economic apartheid’.
Should we have still protested to help stop racial apartheid in South Africa?
Of course.
However, in order to help prevent ‘brand Mandela’ being used by the ANC in the elections next year, in order to continue to push their neo-liberal agenda, I believe that now is the time to reveal this ‘inconvenient truth’.
In so doing, let me say that this gives me no pleasure.
No one likes being told that their idol has ‘feet of clay’, or that they have been effectively misled.
I am ‘boycotting’ remembrance services for Nelson Mandela, because I hope that this will encourage debate and discussion, and those ‘social movements’ in South Africa who have been leading the fightback against the ANC’s ‘war on the poor’, will get the attention and support that they deserve.
Thinking about what’s behind this unemployment we have, the falling wages, the deepening demands and the meaner consideration for the worker. (I was watching Castle on tv the other day and his daughter was helping and I think she could stop and have drink because she had been working for five hours!!) That’s fiction isn’t it?? I know that the nice 10-15 minute break at morning and afternoon tea has gone, and people snatch lunch while at their desks or have half an hour off that allows them to imbibe something go to the toilet and then back to work.
A malicious witch-hunt courtesy of that horrendous woman Paula Rebstock, and the unquestioned acceptance by the current States Service Commissioner Hugh Rennie. I’ve been down the road of witch hunt behaviour by psychopathic senior public servants, so I know exactly what it was like for the unfortunate Foriegn Affairs employees who found themselves in the middle of it all. They are lucky they didn’t have a caveat placed on them preventing them from revealing the truth and/or clearing their names of wrong doing as I did.
If I had my way… come the Labour-led Govt. at the end of the year, Rebstock would be sent back to America from whence she came and Rennie would be fired.
“The country could lose an informed and thoughtful citizenry which understands the history and cultures of a diverse nation and supports social and economic innovation and international engagement”, and, and, and, 😎
hmmm, might have to relocate somewhere cooler next year; Dunedin looks favourable, they even have a university library, no more exorbitant inter-loan fees. mounted an electric assist motor and battery pack to a cycle for a chap a few years ago, they are quite groovy if you don’t require as much exercise.
Not as regenerating as that wheel though.
Yes poverty is bad, yes asset sales are questionable. But what really fucks me off is why doesn’t the govt take control and do the whole internet fibre roll out itself? This is a national infrastructure issue, just like roads and bridges. Whoever owns it will be able to hold the country to ransom. There aren’t many issues that define a generation internet access is a massive issue, it is so important for many reasons, business and communication, just two. Fuck chorus get the job done yourselves you useless pricks, and get it done soon.
But what really fucks me off is why doesn’t the govt take control and do the whole internet fibre roll out itself?
Because then they wouldn’t be leaving it to the market and their constituents wouldn’t be able to bludge off of the rest of NZ as shareholders of Chorus.
Unfortunately, Labour is in the same camp as National as far as that goes. They’re both blinded by the ideology of the market although Labour for different reasons.
What’s going to happen in the USA? Sounds like a Detroit repeated? As people leave and seek a place to live and work, the tsunami is following them. Prof Wolff says that they leave their houses, take their children from school, and shift in desperation to another city only to find it sinking into recession again. It will reach us here. It seems there will be further change. What will it be for us?
The big financiers are cutting their investments in the USA. They are looking for somewhere else to park their monies. The hedge funds are hedging. Professor Richard D Wolff lecture –
There is often discussion about the reason for child abuse growing etc. Two USA Profs have discussed the growing problems there and how they are converging on people on the financial side and the social side as things deteriorate.
http://rdwolff.com/content/psychology-and-economy-discussion-brecht-forum This disussion between Dr. Harriet Fraad and Professor Richard Wolff focuses on how the continued economic deterioration (credit crisis, rising food and energy prices, falling home prices, looming recession, fiscal crises of states and cities, etc.) is interacting with the psychological stresses and strains of US life today (isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, violence, child neglect, etc.).
The discussion explores whether a potentially explosive convergence of economic and psychological crises is now under way. It also explores the possibilities and strategies of left political mobilization around these twin assaults on the US quality of life.
The updated, revised, and expanded edition of that book (published in January, 2010, by Palgrave-Macmillan) is Class Struggle on the Home Front as shown on the books page of this website.
That’s just awesome David, Thx for pointing out. Best Labour poll result in 4 years. DC on a massive 18% for pref PM. And all from a generally Tory leaning Herald poll!!!
Because there is a filter on acceptable incoming HTML and underline isn’t on it. I can’t see a reason to add it. I suspect it would just make for messy pages.
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū. When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, ...
Summer reissue: Was it a false measurement, a full-blown conspiracy or just some mild incompetence? Mad Chapman uncovers the truth of Maddi Wesche’s final throw. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Old, Associate Professor, Biology, Zoology, Animal Science, Western Sydney University Dmitry Chulov, Shutterstock At this time of year, images of reindeer are everywhere. I’ve had a soft spot for reindeer ever since I was a little girl. Doesn’t everyone? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grozdana Manalo, Career Services Manager (Education), University of Sydney hedgehog94/Shutterstock Getting casual work over summer, or a part-time job that you might continue once your tertiary course starts, can be a great way to get workplace experience and earn some extra ...
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The NZ Media Council upheld the complaint under principle four: comment and fact On 5 September 2024, The Spinoff published a brief article titled Made in Palestine, found in 1970s Hastings, which highlighted an upcoming art exhibition featuring photographs of vintage cosmetic products labelled “Made in Palestine.” The piece, described ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Woods, Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University FTiare/Shutterstock Summer is here and for many that means going to the beach. You grab your swimmers, beach towel and sunscreen then maybe check the weather forecast. Did you think to ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Late Night With The Devil. Maslow Entertainment Marketing is critical to the success of commercial films, and companies will often spend half as much again on top of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francisco Jose Testa, Lecturer in Earth Sciences (Mineralogy, Petrology & Geochemistry), University of Tasmania The Conversation As a kid, it was tough for me to grasp the massive time scale of Earth’s history. Now, with nearly two decades of experience as ...
Te Pāti Māori has had to adopt a new way of debating, operating and even thinking in Parliament in response to the Government’s “onslaught” against te ao Māori, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says.In an end-of-year interview with Newsroom, the Te Tai Hauauru MP reflected on how 2024 has differed from her ...
Opinion: The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science report was announced earlier this month, yet it didn’t get the flurry of media attention and political hand-wringing that typically accompanies these announcements. This might be because it presented good news, or you could argue, no news; the results paint a ...
NewsroomBy Dr Lisa Darragh, Dr Raewyn Eden and Dr David Pomeroy
At long last, The Spinoff shells out for a nut ranking. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It recently came to The Spinoff’s attention ...
I was one of hundreds of people who lost my government job this week. Here’s exactly how it played out. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a ...
Summer reissue: One anxiously attentive passenger pays attention to an in-flight safety video, and wonders ‘Why can’t I pick up my own phone?’ The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up ...
Summer reissue: Why do those Lange-Douglas years cast such a long shadow 40 years on? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. First published June ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The Government’s social housing agency has backed out of a billion-dollar infrastructure alliance that would have built about 6000 new homes in Auckland – less than 18 months after signing a five-year extension.Labour says the decision to rip up the contract and sell off existing state houses could lead to ...
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xox
At what point does a country stop being a Democracy? Is such a re-definition possible in NZ? Who would describe such a change to …?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
An article from America that makes for an interesting comparison.
Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all
The brighter future promised by Key
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11172307
“Food queues already huge, says Mission”
“It’s about numbers being large and it’s also about people being desperate.
“Every single person who comes through here has nowhere else to go … people have exhausted every option before they come here. Believe you me, unless you really had to, you wouldn’t do this.
“I’m looking at our numbers and they’re higher than last year. I just think people live in chronic poverty – economic recovery is certainly not touching these people.”
But they’ll be written off as lazy. Heartbreaking.
If they are lazy, why do more people become lazy under a NAct government.
I don’t understand why the parties of the Left are not forced to commit to a policy of full employment for those 25 and under.
Get rid of this “lazy” meme once and for all, instead of moaning about it.
Is totally support Labour promising that.
kinda relevant..?
“..Death of a schoolboy: why concussion is rugby union’s dirty secret..”
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/dec/13/death-of-a-schoolboy-ben-robinson-concussion-rugby-union
“..Behind his profoundly tragic story is another of a sport in denial –
– where authorities at all levels dither over treating concussion –
– while all the time, players grow stronger – heavier – and the hits get ever bigger..”
phillip ure..
My BF thinks that if rugby were invented today and tried to be rolled out as a ‘sport’ in schools, it would be seen as ritualistic child abuse and wouldn’t get anywhere.
And he’s probably right.
Time for Len Brown to resign. He’s morally bankrupt after getting freebies from SkyCity and other hotels.
Out with this corrupt mayor.
Yep. Out of the mayoralty, straight into the John Key cabinet. Oh, is that not what you meant? Fair enough, he’s really not in the league of the real crooks, is he?
He’s morally bankrupt after getting freebies from SkyCity and other hotels.
Just to be clear, are you saying that all who do this should resign?
I’m with you, but are you with you?
Um no that would only apply to politicians on the right because no politicians on the left would ever accept freebies from Sky City
That’s correct.
Of course you’re referrring to the Labour fools in the rugby corporate box. None were on the left.
Thats what Labours become…center right
Yup.
They’re not a socialist party.
That lot in the rugby corporate box were more your Social List types.
Indeed!
That’s how they justify it all to themselves. As my kids used to say (when of primary school age): wank wank, money in the bank
Time for John Key and the rest of the National Caucus to resign. They’re morally bankrupt after after lying to the citizens of NZ and giving our wealth to their cronies such as Warner Bros, Rio Tinto etc etc.
Out with this corrupt government.
http://m.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/12/dividing_by_race.html
Ugh, made the mistake of reading Kiwibog post about Brown and fell across this vileness. It’s about ethnic communities wanting a say on councils a la Maori.
“This is the problem with special privileges for one race. Others then want the same.”
Farrar isn’t stupid so I assume he does know that there is a very good reason not to treat Maori like other ‘races’,
Has he written anything about the Treaty?
White xmas update:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2013/dec/13/santa-white-jesus-white-fox-news-megyn-kelly-video
She calls ‘white Jesus’ a verifiable historical figure… and then says Santa is too. So clearly she’s just lying to the audience about everything.
I kinda think most Fox presenters lie like they breath; it just comes natural to them. The interesting question for me would be whether she thinks modern Palestinians are white, I think she’d kinda struggle with that concept.
I kinda think most Fox presenters lie like they breath; [sic] it just comes natural to them.
What you have written is perfectly true, Te Reo. But it’s not just Fox News. Have you watched the BBC in the last ten years? Or CNN? Or Al Jazeera? Or Television One? Or TV3?
Admittedly it has the most obnoxious stars (O’Reilly, Hannity, etc.) but essentially Fox differs from the rest of them because it is shriller, not because it is substantially more dishonest.
It’s sick-making how Fux News relies so heavily on caraciture blonde bimbos…….misogyny really.
So does Television New Zealand. What justification other than good looks is there for inflicting viewers with that grinning, nodding Thunderbird puppet Simon Dallow?
how about the comperes of their breakfast show..?
..whoar..!
..muppet and puppet..
..you pick which is which..
..phillip ure..
+1 Morrisey. Fox isn’t unique, it’s just more blunt because it can afford to be.
Jon Stewart takes the piss out of Megyn Kelly’s white Santa Claus.
Steven Colbert weighs in.
… only in America…
not that you’d really know it from reading our alcohol-advertising-dominated mainstream media..
..but uraguay fully legalised/brought in state control of cannabis..
..and to totally destroy the blackmarket..the countries’ president plans for the state to sell cannabis @ $1 per gram..
..so who is this enlightened-president..?
..why..!..he’s another ‘terrorist’..
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/uruguay-president-jose-mujica
“..In the week that Uruguay legalises cannabis – the 78-year-old explains why he rejects the ‘world’s poorest president’ label.
If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity – it is José Mujica – Uruguay’s president –
– who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse –
– donates the vast bulk of his salary to social projects –
– flies economy class –
– and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle.
But the former guerrilla fighter is clearly disgruntled by those who tag him “the world’s poorest president” and –
– much as he would like others to adopt a more sober lifestyle –
– the 78-year-old has been in politics long enough to recognise the folly of claiming to be a model for anyone.
“If I asked people to live as I live – they would kill me” – Mujica said – during an interview in his small but cosy one-bedroom home set amid chrysanthemum fields outside Montevideo.
The president is a former member of the Tupamaros guerrilla group –
– which was notorious in the early 1970s for bank robberies – kidnappings –
– and distributing stolen food and money among the poor..”
(cont..)
..phillip ure
I note his election slogan ““Un gobierno honrado, un país de primera” (An honest government, a first-class country”.
Makes sense that as a country we are heading downhill fast…
Xox
Thanks for the link, Paul. I observe with interest.
I reckon 5 have gone already.
Just for those that are blind and will not cross the divide….. This is on Whale Oil this morning, read it and weep.
Quote:
“Consistency would be nice.
When National won the election on a platform including partial asset sales, the Green Taliban said that the fact National didn’t get more than 50% of the eligible vote, they didn’t have a mandate.
Flegin, one of our commenters puts the same theory to the test on the referendum result.
So basically going by the Green/Labour method of vote counting there is no mandate to cease asset sales as only 30% of the eligible voters are against it.
That settles that then. Unquote.
the Green Taliban said that the fact National didn’t get more than 50% of the eligible vote
Who made this statement? When?
Indeed. Who said that Dumrse?
I’m sure a blogger with Whale’s journalistic styles wouldn’t make a claim without fact-checking it and linking to a source, especially if his whole argument rested on it.
gobsmacked, I think dumrse is borrowing Peter Dunne’s term for the Green Party.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=61658
God knows what else he is going on about.
Incidentally Dunney Boy, like Shonkey, you can put it in your pipe and smoke it! Remember you sold out and voted for asset sales. Guess what? Two thirds of your electorate tells you they don’t agree with it:
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/2013_citizens_referendum/2013_preliminary_referendum_results.html
(Courtesy of notices and features)
See ya later alligator!
Your name is well chosen. Of course, the 2011 election was not about asset sales; polls show that even most National Party supporters oppose the selling off of our public assets.
This poll is specific—and irrefutable. And it signifies doom for the National Party—as you are only too aware, in spite of your hopeful defiance.
Every single electorate in NZ voted against asset sales. Lab/Greens just need to keep repeating this.
Fucking git is right. Focus on the big numbers nobody cares that one or two from very electorate voted. As has been repeated elsewhere, I wonder how many operations $9M would have funded, how many socialist school lunches, how many……..
When you get to be Government, buy the fucking shares back. But them back. In the mean time, get over it Git.
Dumrse, you’ve been asked a simple question, above.
Abuse is not an answer.
Keep up with the issues gobsmacked. RN has argued for months that National has no mandate to sell assets given they polled less than 50% of eligible votes.
Now read last nights CIR numbers and tell me RN and your man Cuntlips have an overwhelming majority of eligible voters that want sales to stop.
Aside from that, troll Hansard yourself but here is a start….
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/50HansQ_20130312_00000001/1-state-owned-assets-sales—public-support-purpose-and
“How can he claim a mandate to sell our assets when the majority of New Zealanders voted at the last election for parties opposed to asset sales, and the vast majority of New Zealanders continue to oppose asset sales in every poll on the issue?”
is not the same argument as
“National has no mandate to sell assets given they polled less than 50% of eligible votes.”
Oh God. Is it really possible for anyone to be that stupid?
ELIGIBLE voters. ELIGIBLE.
Look, Dumrse, it’s OK if you don’t know what the word ELIGIBLE means, just say so and we can talk you through it.
If you’re a beginner at English, fair play to you for trying. It’s a difficult language to learn! Think of the words ELIGIBLE VOTERS like this …
1) “Do”. “Can”. Not same.
2) “Did”. “Didn’t”. Not same.
So Russel Norman hasn’t said what you claim, but if you still don’t understand and need more help, we’re here for you.
ELLY-JIB-BULL.
“Is it really possible for anyone to be that stupid?”
They’re not stupid. They’re disingenuous fucks who don’t like being shown they’re on the wrong side on this, so they’re twisting shit every chance they get.
That’s certainly true for Slater and Farrar.
Not so sure about their groupies like Dumrse, who can only ever copy and paste from their blog-gods. He just might believe what he writes (sorry, steals).
What motivates them?
It’s not a passion for a better society.
Is,it simply a better world from themselves?
@ paul..it’s a class-war..
..based on the teachings of one ayn rand..
..where the world is divided into the worthy and the unworthy..
..where you give the ‘worthy’ lots..(corporate-welfare..)
..and you give the ‘unworthy’ nothing..(cut welfare/support for the poorest..)
..(does any of that sound familiar..?.)
..this is the ideological-underpinning of what bennett/this govt is doing to the poorest/sickest/weakest..
..these are the rationales they apply to justify to themselves their uncaring..
..basically..they just don’t give a fuck about those one in four nz children living in poverty..
(and they point to rand as explanation/justification..)
..this is why they do do what they do..
..and why they don’t do what they don’t do..
..that..and personal greed..
..which dovetails nicely with the vile preachings of the rand..
..phillip ure..
Fucks we are then. The assets have been sold and the remainder will follow. Get the fuck over it.
What you can do now is plan to buy then back. PLAN TO BUY THEM BACK. You’re going to have to wait a while but at least you can start to plan. Tell Cuntlips to make the announcement next week, then your 225,000 Nats that voted NO, will switch sides to the left and you are quids in. However, don’t hold your breath waiting otherwise you will turn BLUE.
So, what you claimed in your first comment, at 9.12 am … was never said.
Glad we’ve cleared that up, shame it took so long.
or..dmrse..
..we could go with my idea of partial-nationalisation..
..this is where the govt/state takes a 51% stake in crucial industries/services..
..(the supermarket-duopoly/booze-pushers/gambling/oil/banking being the obvious/first to be targeted..)
..those shares will be paid for by the state..(no theft..)..with the payments for those shares to be paid over a set time..(from profits/w.h.y….)
..the benefits from this policy are obvious..
..the common-good suddenly swings into major consideration/a factor in the actions/operations of these entities..
(and with the food duopoly..obesity-fighting initiatives suddenly face far less (profit-driven) obstacles from that duopoly/food-industries..(with manufacturers told..make it healthy..or we won’t buy it from you..etc etc..)
..the other listed entities would also benefit from that new common-good imperative..
..and of course..the beauty of this 51% partial-nationalisation plan/idea is that by leaving 49% in private-holding..
..you retain the commercial/operating expertise of the existing infrastructures..
..it’s basically turning the justifications for partial-privatisation upside down..
..and in doing so removes most of the rightwing objections to such a schema..
..what’s not to love about all that..?
..phillip ure..
buy back the ones owned by people.
Just renationalise the ones owned by corporations or trusts.
“Mum and dad” investors were conned. Corporatea were looking to con.
appears to have already announced “Labour reserve the right to BUY BACK…”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11172629
If DPF or Whale haven’t talked about the question, Dumrse won’t have an answer. He’s not much of a thinker. This is known.
phillip u
If business can buy up another business using leverage, why can’t a government do that also. It doesn’t need to make big profits. DTB would say it doesn’t need to make any. But say they want to work within a price system established by the market, but drag it down a bit and then put any profit back to the government which balances that against the loan it first raised with itself until it is zero. Is that your idea? Sounds doable.
Did you hear the guy talking about bitcoin this a.m on Radionz? Sounds like Green $ with some hard intelligence behind it, which makes it more durable than the rather bendy version that can arise out of the actions of half-economic-educated idealists who demonstrate that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And can muck up a good idea by straying from the mission and finding it hard to make a decision that is relevant to the circumstances when needed.
As a currency bitcoin is pretty fcked tho.
Didn’t hear the thing this morning, but everyone talking about how it’s value is skyrocketing, therefore it’s awesome, don’t grok that what they’re looking at is deflation.
Holding bitcoins for the last year would have made you money; spending them, not so much.
Abuse is dmrse’s concept of reasoned debate.
He needs to educate himself on so many fronts.
Lesson 1 Don’t rely on Rw blogs as you only Source of news.
National should have no worries then. Except they seem a bit worried.
Impostor at Madiba memorial has a violent past and continues to offend
So why did those Stepford South African stooges APPLAUD him?
“Impostor at Mandela memorial has a criminal history that includes charges of murder, rape, kidnapping and theft”—Daily Mail, 13 December 2013
The man who “led the tributes to Nelson Mandela” is a criminal who presides over a vast network of illegal kidnapping, extrajudicial executions, and torture chambers; has repeatedly endorsed criminal actions by violent gangs and militias in Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other jurisdictions; and has personally participated in the traducing and persecution of dissidents, truth-tellers and journalists in his own country and overseas.
The South African news site eNCA was able to establish these facts in less than 48 hours, posing serious questions about the security arrangements at Tuesday’s memorial and why the government failed to pick up Obama’s past.
“During the memorial, it emerged on social media networks that Obama wasn’t a fit person to speak at Mandela’s memorial and that his words during that historic event didn’t make any sense.
“The story went global—but Obama was portrayed as a statesman while the sign language interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie was selected as a convenient scapegoat and relentlessly portrayed as a joke by Obama-cultists from around the world.
Impostor waves arm in air….
http://cdn1.independent.ie/world-news/article29829821.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/PANews_bfce2d94-f4ec-4d75-b069-6d5218eab9d2_I1.jpg
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/12/13/attention-secret-service-schizophrenic-signer-once-charged-with-murder-rape-88921
“I ESTEEM Sir Geoffrey!”
David Slack’s foolish endorsement of an infamous stooge
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Jim Mora, David Slack, Sally Wenley
Today’s pre-show segment with Susan Baldacci was notable for the lack of depraved Red China-style derision of government-selected victims, the lack of insultingly juvenile survey findings, and the lack of host Jim Mora saying “according to the New York Times.” The first half of the program proper was taken up with the Len Brown report; Murray McCully’s squeeze Jane Clifton even managed to be fair and reasonable in her comments. So, compared to some of the dire recent episodes of this program, things looked promising.
After the news it was time for the “Soapbox” segment. Sally Wenley, who is a paraplegic, told a heartbreaking and infuriating story of her mistreatment at the hands of Air New Zealand. Perhaps our national carrier’s CEO should look to fixing up basic standards of service in this country rather than going on television to assure everyone that everything was fine—“no danger at all!”—during a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
So far so good. But then THIS happened…..
MORA: David Slack, what have you been thinking about?
DAVID SLACK: Well, I want to recommend a book!
MORA: Oh really?
DAVID SLACK: Yes. I’ve just read Reform: A Memoir by Sir Geoffrey Palmer. He used to be my teacher. I ESTEEM him! He’s a very, uh, energetic and able and industrious person…. He’s very good at taking a complex story and telling it in a concise and clear way. …[continues vapouring on about the qualities of “Sir” Geoffrey for what seems like a very long time]…. He’s, ahhhh, he’s done a lot of good for this country and I thoroughly recommend it!
COMING UP SOON: Why that brief encomium by David Slack was one of the stupidest, most morally bankrupt few minutes of airtime this year.
The suspense…
Palmer’s humiliation has been in the public realm for the last three years. It is studiously ignored by the media here, but it is easy to read all about it.
Here’s an introduction….
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/2/as_turkey_freezes_israel_ties_critics
And a more detailed demolition of the compliant, highly amenable Palmer and his chums by Norman Finkelstein in ‘Torpedoing the Law: How the Palmer Report Justified Israel’s Naval Blockade of Gaza’.
And all of it carefully shielded from the New Zealand public.
Yes but David Slack is usually excellent on The Panel compared to some of the muppets that appear. And Palmer has been excellent in the media on, for instance, the ill-fated RMA reforms. (Anyone know what is happening with these?)
David Slack is usually excellent on The Panel…
True enough, but endorsing Palmer was a grave lapse in judgement.
….compared to some of the muppets that appear.
That, my friend, is damning him with the faintest praise possible.
And Palmer has been excellent in the media on, for instance, the ill-fated RMA reforms.
Yes, he is a learned man who has done much of value for this country and written some excellent books. I’ve read them all and admired them. But the sad fact is: Palmer is a moral coward, and has been condemned by everyone who knows anything about that 2010 massacre of peace activists in international waters that he served to justify.
@ morrissey..when i heard it i thought for sure you would react to the final piece on poverty..
..where any increase income solutions were swerved away from/not mentioned..
..and mora just let that rightwinger leslie someone-or-other bang on and on about ‘personal rsponsibility’..
..it was noted how this problem appeared 30 yrs ago..
..(duh..!..around about the time the tories/richardson ripped up the social contract..and slashed the incomes of the worst off..)
..but money wasn’t mentioned..
..i thoght it was a jaw-dropping example of what is so often wrong with that segment..
..mora grunted along in support of this crap..and gave the likes of slack no chance to respond..
..it was a long rant from this leslie..and then mora goes ‘see you all next week’..
..did you leave the room for that one..?
..phillip ure..
..it was a long rant from this leslie..and then mora goes ‘see you all next week’..
..did you leave the room for that one..?
No, Phillip, I did not miss it—but my focus was on exposing David Slack’s slackness.
I, like you and no doubt many others, listened in horror to that notoriously anti-welfare “libertarian” Lindsay Mitchell sounding off. I took notes, and will work it up into a presentable form. Keep watching…..
So there must be something I not getting. Chorus own the copper, Chrous will own the broadband. So Chrous can save money connecting whole streets at a time and ending copper (like freeview has terrestrial). Now Chorus is hit by low copper prices and high NZ dollar, meaning it didn’t hedge its position. So am I not getting that Chorus problems don’t stem from just poor management, and that management closeness with the government, please, can someone explain how the pricing of copper connections effect Chorus, Chorus has the contract to move to fibre, naff said. Anyone wanting just a landline just gets a fibre landline only plan for the same price. Duh.
Because the stupid idiots aren’t taking out the copper and putting in the fibre. They’re leaving the copper in there to give people “choice” and then charging massive amounts to be connected to the fibre network. Most people will stay with the copper connection because they won’t be able to afford the inflated price for fibre.
The whole lot has been done very badly but that’s to be expected of privatised services that have been run down to provide higher profit.
I heard the other day that the next emerging technology will use copper, so there will be another whole round of new products and shifting costs to pass onto consumers in the future.
No. Copper has limitations. VDSL is the best you can easily get, and you need to be close to an Exchange.
Fibre is cheap. No idea what crap Draco is talking about.
New copper standard that makes VDSL look slow. Actually, it makes our fibre roll-out look slow. As you say though, highly limited: The drawback with G.fast is that it will only work over short distances, so 1Gbps will only be possible at distances of up to about 100 meters. The technology is being designed to work at distances up to 250 meters, though transmission speed is slower at that distace.
Probably not worth the effort.
The best option as far as telecommunications in NZ go was to have left it as a state monopoly. This would have had fibre being rolled out to the home as a matter of course rather than needing government to fund it. IMO, it would have started about 10 years ago. This roll-out would have been as a replacement of the copper local loop. When finished there would have been no copper left in the ground (quite literally).
What we’ve got instead is that the fibre is being rolled out in competition with the copper network. This is going to split funding (both the copper and the fibre will need to pay for itself plus profit) making fibre far more expensive than it should be while the regulators push the price of copper down. The pushing down of the price of copper limits the income that Chorus has to invest in the fibre network.
Contrary to ideological belief of the RWNJs in National, Act, Labour and economists, it was never going to be the private owners who paid for the investment – it was always going to be us. All that privatisation has done is allow a few people to clip the ticket while providing nothing at all.
“Chorus expected to meet a significant part of the $1B funding shortfall [700-800M, Ernst and Young, Australia ; cuts to dividends ] “- Adams.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11172642
Pushing copper technologies almost makes sense as it would be cheaper and faster to roll out than fibre because the copper is already in the ground. That said, copper deteriorates which means it’s going to need to be replaced at some point and the limitations of copper mean that it will never meet what fibre is already capable of. A lot of the copper in the ground in NZ has been there 20+ years which means that it’s due for replacement and the best option would be to replace it with fibre.
If there’s nothing there ATM then rolling out fibre is the better option.
Gerry brownlee and national hang your heads in shame. Have a read of his Christmas card to schools wishing them a merry xmas and a great 2014 fir national.
the main diff betw asset sales ref and smacking ref is the second was hijacked by so much false and misleading information. This one was straigtforward. Anyone who accuses a party in nz of being the taliban loses all credibility for its content. Those who repeat it? The same.
The Taleban is just another puerile right wing insult.
The Taleban is just another puerile right wing insult.
It seems to that when economists talk about “Next year an economic cracker” like Brian Gaynor has today in the Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11172242
we need to pause and ask the question “for who?”
Can you really say the economy is going to have a “cracker year” if wage growth remains stagnant, a quarter of our children remain in poverty, and no one except landlords and rentiers can afford a home in our largest city? When Gaynor talks of a cracker year, he really means “A cracker year for the 1%”.
Justice, due process, requires that people are forced to make the choice, compensation or criminal proceedings, that’s just patently the corruption of justice.
No, the only thing that can be said is that the economy will continue to fail.
Gaynor is in the finance industry.
Enough said.
Sanctuary. According to the RBNZ, household wealth shot up by $5B in the last quarter alone. No recession here.
Why am I in moderation?
[Akisimet has taken a disliking to you, I don’t know why … MS]
Why am I in moderation?
You’ve been drinking?
Record profits result from body shaming women
As I keep saying, human culture in the west has been largely replaced by corporate culture.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/13/lululemon-yoga-women-profits-body-image
How many women don’t wear make-up. Theatre make-up is used to enhance features so actors faces, features and expressions can be seen from a distance. Is this the same drive in the average woman on an everyday basis? If it was just part of a dress-up culture, it’s use demonstrating a time for some play and theatrics and leisure fun, that would be healthy. But not when there is a demand to constantly paint a soft mask over the face, disguising and disdaining the natural features, the real person who is both very ordinary and similarly very unique and special, yet made to be constantly aware of a standard of appearance that person’s face and figure will rarely if ever attain.
There is a huge amount of money made by corporates playing on women’s feeling that the way they look is important in establishing their right to be present on the earth. Women must appear attractive. It is an unwritten law. And taken for granted is that ‘attractive’ rarely is just the ‘unvarnished’ appearance, the clean, ordinary, open-faced, positive and relaxed look of someone happy with themselves.
The paint and colour merchants want to play on women’s lack of happy sense of their own worth and attractiveness. So in womens magazines the beautiful woman must be enhanced with air brushing, the woman with ‘good bones’ but a too-ordinary face has cosmetics applied to enhance her face, which isn’t acceptable as natural.
An actress has recently been in the news for pointing out how many of her published images had been air-brushed. This was about her body shape not her face but the same oppression of anti-woman demand by shape-shifting corporates and money-chasing image controllers applies. She said look at me on this page, my legs have never been so slim, nor my hips etc. Good on her. The societal acceptance of the hegemony of this necessary enhancement of women for acceptance means that it is pervasive. You’re soaking in it.
Why does Radio NZ ask Lindsay Mitchell to comment on welfare?
In fact, why does ANYONE ask her to comment?
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Jim Mora, David Slack, Sally Wenley
Part 1: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14122013-2/#comment-744576
Part 2 of 2…..
DAVID SLACK: Sir Geoffrey Palmer… used to be my teacher. I esteem him. He’s a very, uh, energetic and able and industrious person…. He’s very good at taking a complex story and telling it in a concise and clear way. ……. He’s, ahhhh, he’s done a lot of good for this country and I thoroughly recommend it!
JIM MORA: Thank you. Lindsay Mitchell with us shortly, but just before she comes on: there have been some more poverty claims today. School principals are citing deprivation in the homes. We spoke this week with Dr Elizabeth Craig who firmly opined there is real poverty. [1] What is your opinion, before we talk to Lindsay, who has been commenting on welfare for many years?
Sally Wenley blamed the greed of landlords. David Slack climbed off the dark horse he had been riding called “Praise of Cowards” and re-mounted his normal steed, a noble animal called “Sensible and Reasonable Commentary” [That’s enough tortured racehorse metaphors.—Ed.] and argued that whatever the word we use, there are kids who are living in conditions that are not good for them. He then did something most un-Palmerish: he actually showed a bit of backbone, and chided Mora for sending him an insultingly simple-minded article about welfare that had been written by some ACT lout.
Quite possibly the ACT halfwit had plagiarised that article from Jim’s next guest…
JIM MORA: Lindsay Mitchell, good afternoon.
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Yeah hi!
MORA: Is it true that we have a poverty problem in New Zealand?
LINDSAY MITCHELL: [baffled sigh to indicate great moral seriousness] I, uhhhh, we need to take a step back. ….[further pause for effect]…. Why do we have this problem? Did we have it thirty or forty years ago? ….[embarks on long and wandery discourse pretty much identical to what is inflicted on NewstalkZB listeners every weekday morning from 8:30 to noon]…. One in every five babies born in New Zealand will be on a benefit by the time they are sixteen.
MORA: Are you saying we should address the problem of these people having children? Is that what you are saying?
LINDSAY MITCHELL: [pause for effect] Yes. ….[pause for effect]….That is what I’m saying. ….[sigh]…. I tell my own children: “You’ve got a life! Don’t have children when you’re sixteen or seventeen!”
This odious woman would have carried on for several hours and no doubt often does, but mercifully the strains of Carmina Burana were welling up to bid an end to her John Banks-style ranting. Anyone with an interest in monitoring extreme right wing bullshit should visit her website, which is replete with articles by such intellectual luminaries as Roger Kerr (R.I.P.), Stephen Franks and, perhaps the most damning of all, the unhinged racist—and National Party strategist—John Ansell.
All of her commentary is shallow and extremely biased. Here, by way of example, is her most recent post, about the referendum:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“A third say YES. Good result. Probably reasonably representative. A minority of National voters didn’t want the sales. Nothing to see here. Waste of time and money.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
http://lindsaymitchell.blogspot.co.nz/2013/12/cir-asset-sales-referendum-result.html
That is peremptory, dismissive, arrogant commentary. Remember that Lindsay Mitchell promotes herself as a “welfare commentator”. But even more lamentable than this woman’s lack of conscience and judgement is the fact that Jim Mora’s producers at Radio NZ National use her to commentate on welfare issues, just like they ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to comment on justice issues.
Your tax dollars at work.
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09122013/#comment-741884
http://lindsaymitchell.blogspot.co.nz/
Morrissey
That is peremptory, dismissive, arrogant commentary. Remember that Lindsay Mitchell promotes herself as a “welfare commentator”. But even more lamentable than this woman’s lack of conscience and judgement is the fact that Jim Mora’s producers at Radio NZ National use her to commentate on welfare issues, just like they ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to comment on justice issues.
Your tax dollars at work.
That states well how many RW commentators come over. And I do not agree with the soft mattress fall-back used by Radionz when choosing who it will speak to for ‘expert, thoughtful’ opinions. Well put Morrissey.
Libertarians 0.5% of the vote, yet numerous representatives and spokespeople on the Panel.
Franks, Williams, Mitchell, …
Highest points out of ten there Morrissey.
I listened to les beaux Mitchell and Mora. I must say my spine stiffened somewhat with the business of – “Yes we should address the problem of ‘these people’ having children”.
You fraudulent impostor of a commentator bitch !
no need to hold back North 😉
Xox
It’s official, NZ is the least corrupt country in the world – Transparency International Review. Believe it or not. I don’t.
That survey was obviously done before November 2008.
These days I’m wondering if they even bother with the survey because it seems like they pull the results out of their arse.
Xox,
Lessa and Lessa from Jim Mora. ‘Afternoons’ is becoming a must to avoid. Baldacci, Mora and Co. are getting more clueless, precious, right leaning, and trivial by the week. Jim tells me he is trying to improve the program. It’s not working Jim. Wipe the slate clean and start again. RNZ is the only independent, non commercial quality broadcaster and we deserve the highest quality journalism that a frozen budget allows.
Who picks the panel?
Not fair, balanced or representative of NZ.
The Transparency review was last week. Keep your eye on the ball.
The Transparency review was last week.
Then somebody was telling them a whole bunch of lies.
Keep your eye on the ball.
I do. It’s Transparency International that seems to have problems in that direction.
Next up, unauthorised pigeongram interception.
/
Encryption experts have complained for years that the most commonly used technology, known as A5/1, is vulnerable and have urged providers to upgrade to newer systems that are much harder to crack. Most companies worldwide have not done so, even as controversy has intensified in recent months over NSA collection of cellphone traffic, including of such world leaders as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The extent of the NSA’s collection of cellphone signals and its use of tools to decode encryption are not clear from a top-secret document provided by former contractor Edward Snowden. But it states that the agency “can process encrypted A5/1” even when the agency has not acquired an encryption key, which unscrambles communications so that they are readable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/by-cracking-cellphone-code-nsa-has-capacity-for-decoding-private-conversations/2013/12/13/e119b598-612f-11e3-bf45-61f69f54fc5f_story.html?hpid=z1
Xox
Transparency International Review of NZ is laughable and inaccurate. But it’s all we’ve got.Bit like poverty stats, homeless stats, productivity stats, in fact, probably all Government (pseudo) stats. Basically cow crap.
If there was a spill…..
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/13/news/companies/anadarko-clean-up/index.html
Did 57% in ilam vote no?
Yep, 57.6% to be exact (preliminary)
And 58% part voted National in 2011.
Lots of Nats disaffected by this government’s fire sale of our nation’s assets.
Gerry Brownlee has problems in Christchurch.
Just had an unpleasant experience seeing how smug, complacent middle-class liberalism facilitates the far right at Public Address. Feeling somewhat disillusioned, but wiser.
“It’s just the ‘normal’ noises in there.”
I’ve discovered what middle-class liberalism means: tolerance of far rightists because “even though we might disagree with them, we need to hear them” while anyone who points out their essential evil gets “Oh dear, that’s rude, what’s for pudding?”
…this is why it is NOT advisable to have dinner with the middle- class…. ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie ‘..if one feels like kicking around shit or having a meaningful conversation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discreet_Charm_of_the_Bourgeoisie
really enjoyed that youtube link thanks Chooky ; here also is an X-Rated “political parable”.
Thanks RT that was some film I must watch it again. Do you know if Peter Greenaway? is still making films?
cannot help there sorry, Google probably can 😀
“Love” that film (quote marks because it makes me queasy – as it’s meant to). It’s an excellent political parable with the dinner party as a metaphor for discourse – ostensibly polite, but an exercise in consumption in reality. Michael Gambon and Helen Mirren, excellent!
AFAIK, without googling, Peter Greenaway has become pretty disillusioned with the film business and concentrates on other media such as art installations these days.
Ah yes, as ever, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Greenaway
..yes thanks…enjoyed that film too…and Peter Greenaway in general
Sorta right there Rhino’. My experience is that good “liberal” people (voted ShonKey ’08 if not “11) who for the look of it claim to but don’t actually give a fuck about else than self really delight in the business of focusing on objection to the way a message is put across. Thus avoiding addressing the essential point. Enables them to wimp out while still masquerading as enlightened and knowing. Dumb self-satisfied high-equity or freehold in Herne Bay aging yuppie wankers !
I have a mate 60+ alpha type who’s never invited back to some places because he’s too real. One delightful example – a guy owning and operating some light industry in East Tamaki which employs 29 Polynesians. Turns up to one of the smartest streets in Devonport in a latish model Porsche for the smartest dinner party where there are namecards at the dinner table I swear.
In polite chatter Porsche driver proceeds to mock the “boongers” upon whom he claims to shine merely by employing them. My mate, large, fit, and pretty trim for his 60 years gives him the works about the “fuck’n pyramid you sit atop !” And “your fuck’n Porsche out there is down to those boongers mate !”.
Well, many liberal pearls clutched and never invited back about which he’s never unpleased. I really respect that bizo in my mate whom I’ve known 50+ years. It’s real stuff and needs not an ounce of rationalisation or mitigation. Arseholes deserve to get the works !
Wiser and sadder to see how shallow and naive the integrity of some people is, I have to say (same to fender, below). The Goebbels wannabe Hoots has found a comfortable niche it seems.
Great effort by yourself and Morrissey, I’m wiser too after following that.
“I’m closing the thread” = I’m taking my ball and going home (with Hooton)
“I’m closing the thread” = I’m taking my ball and going home (with Hooton)
Yeah, that was pretty Cartman-like. I thought Russell was better than that but I was wrong.
If you guys are interested, I’m preparing a film treatment of that lamentable little episode over at Public Address. I’ll post it here first. Working title: Mr Brown’s Boys.
lol Morrissey
FYI – MEDIA ALERT: Penny Bright
(You won’t read this on the Daily Blog!)
“When is the right time to reveal an ‘inconvenient truth’ – that neo-liberal ANC President Nelson Mandela championed ‘privatisation’ – not ‘nationalisation’?
It seems that locally, nationally and internationally, people are largely unaware of this following quote from ANC President Nelson Mandela? :
“Privatisation is the fundamental policy of the ANC, and is going to be implemented …Just because we [government and COSATU] have a working relationship, and they [COSATU] helped put us in power, does not mean that we are happy with everything they say.’ 49
49 Sunday Times, 26 May 1996.
(COSATU – Congress of South African Trade Unions)
How many people know that in 1994, millions of black South Africans voted for the ANC, which swept into power on the following promises / policies:
“The ANC’s 1994 national election campaign was not only premised on delivering democracy and freedom to the citizens of South Africa but was also strongly rooted in the memory of apartheid’s denial of basic resources to black people.
Riding on the crest of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (the ANC’s proposed economic plan for the post-liberation era based on redistribution of the country’s wealth to the poor), the ANC promised to right the wrongs of the past and to give the people what had long been denied them.
Election posters blazing with the black green and gold party colours screamed out to the poor:
“A better life for all!”, “Free basic services!”. “Jobs for all!”,
with a promise to redistribute the wealth accumulated by the apartheid government, white business and the white population.
The poor, trusting the rhetoric, voted in their millions to put the ANC into power as the first democratic government.
When the ANC capitulated to the charms of a market-driven economy, the party ditched clauses from the Freedom Charter and the RDP and emerged with a macro-economic policy that was a ‘fairly standard neoliberal one”. 1
[1 Adam Habib and Vishnu Padaychee (2000), “Economic Policy and Power Relations in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy” in World Development, (vol.28, no.2)3. ]
The choice of a market-driven policy that would ensure maximum profit accumulation by the already rich was made in full knowledge of South Africa’s stratified economy. …. ”
[CENTRE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY RASSP RESEARCH REPORTS 2005, VOL.1
Saranel Benjamin, Durban, September 2005]
But, on the watch of President Nelson Mandela, without consultation or democratic mandate, there was a 180 degree ‘U turn’, when the ANC adopted a neo-liberal agenda:
http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/6332/No_42(1997)_Meyer_MJ.pdf?sequence=1
PRIVATISING SOUTH AFRICA BY DICTUM: A REVIEW
Michael J. Meyer
(Department of Development Studies, University of North West)
1. Introduction
Mindful of the experience in the Third World in general, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)in particular, where in some instances the privatisation of state assets was turned into a farce because of corruption, nepotism patronage and insider dealing, in South Africa (SA) the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) insisted from the outset that the privatisation process is shrouded in secrecy and should be made transparent.
As a consequence COSATU objected to the African National Congress’s (ANC) adoption of a privatisation policy at its December 1994 Conference, which was endorsed without any form of consultation with the labour movement -the ANC’s strongest social partner.’ In order to forestall any unilateral action on the part of the ANC the labour movement insisted on participation and transparency, calling on the ANC to be accountable, not only to its allies but also the masses on any decision taken on the issue of privatisation.
1 COSATU 6th National Congress: 16-19 September 1997, Book 4, Resolutions, Discussion
Documents (1997), p. 33. ”
_____________________________________________________________________________
The ANC’s mechanism for these neo-liberalism reforms – was the GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) policy:
“The Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy drew from the main tenets of neoliberalism as installed globally with the main objective of creating an environment which enables maximum private investment.
Hence GEAR proposed cuts in government spending to reduce the deficit, the introduction of tax concessions for big business, a reduction of tariff barriers (in the clothing, textile,leather and car manufacturing industries), the privatization of government assets (which included the provision of basic services), a reduction in state welfare programmes and a more flexible labour market. Adelzadeh 3
[3 In Hein Marais (2001), South Africa: Limits to Change, (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press) 163] and Saul both agree that the ANC had “come full circle, back to the late apartheid government’s Normative Economic Model.
For the central premise of South Africa’s economic policy now could clearly be clearer: ask not what capital can do for South Africa, but what South Africa can do for capital…”4
[4 Saul 12]
The ANC pushed for GEAR, arguing that the policy framework could help achieve economic growth, attract foreign investment , boost employment and increase socio-economic equality. the verdict so far has been resoundingly negative:
“GEAR has been associated with massive deindustrialization and job-shedding through reduced tariffs on imports, capital flight as as controls over investments are relaxed, attempts to downsize the costs and size of the public sector, and real cuts in education, health and social welfare spending”. 5
[5 Saul 13 ]
This neo-liberal economic framework precludes the the development of any form of social security system for the growing band of unemployed, informal sector workers and the poor. GEAR argues for a decline in state expenditure and, in keeping with global trends, this translates into cutting back on state welfare programmes.
The harsh effects of the GEAR policy have been felt most by those who came into the era of democracy poor. These were black, working class people.
Most were black, women, urban and rural. GEAR has left the poor more vulnerable to increasing poverty and has debilitated most workers by decimating the industries they work in. …”
_____________________________________________________________________________
Privatisation was not the policy that Nelson Mandela upheld in his 27 years of incarceration on Robben Island.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/11/how-the-anc-sold-out-south-africas-poor/
How / when did Nelson Mandela shift from supporting ‘freedom’ to ‘free markets’?
“When you think about Nelson Mandela, you probably think about freedom — free people, free country, free speech. What may be overshadowed by Mr. Mandela’s extraordinary legacy was his complicated journey to support free markets and a free economy.
When Mr. Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he told his followers in the African National Congress that he believed in the nationalization of South Africa’s main businesses.
“The nationalization of the mines, banks and monopoly industries is the policy of the A.N.C., and a change or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable,” he said at the time.
Two years later, however, Mr. Mandela changed his mind, embracing capitalism, and charted a new economic course for his country. …. ”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/how-mandela-shifted-views-on-freedom-of-markets/?_r=0
What a coup for the global elite to have this world-famous anti-apartheid icon, now promoting pro-corporate policies!
Do you really think that Nelson Mandela’s face would be adorning the front pages of the global corporate media, if he had continued to support ‘nationalisation’ instead of privatisation?
Why do you think so many of the global elite were at his funeral, and had so many nice things to say about him?
Yes – Nelson Mandela’s policy of ‘truth and reconciliation’ may have helped prevent a racial bloodbath, but how much did it also help put a ‘lid’ on the fightback against the ANC’s ‘economic apartheid’?
It feels that in ‘blowing the whistle’ and telling the truth, I am not just ‘swimming against the tide’, but standing up to a tsunami.
So be it.
‘Truth is truth’.
In so doing, I believe I am keeping faith with the millions of black South Africans, in whose interests thousands of New Zealanders took to the streets, to help stretch the ‘thin blue line’, to try and make the 1981 Springbok Tour ‘unpoliceable’.
We didn’t march down the street in order for the lot of the black South African majority to be worse off – for racial apartheid to be replaced with ‘economic apartheid’.
Should we have still protested to help stop racial apartheid in South Africa?
Of course.
However, in order to help prevent ‘brand Mandela’ being used by the ANC in the elections next year, in order to continue to push their neo-liberal agenda, I believe that now is the time to reveal this ‘inconvenient truth’.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5giD2KBnQeZ68Jna088YsU_dH0mUA?docId=f342951c-d239-4333-8199-d207feda2af4
In so doing, let me say that this gives me no pleasure.
No one likes being told that their idol has ‘feet of clay’, or that they have been effectively misled.
I am ‘boycotting’ remembrance services for Nelson Mandela, because I hope that this will encourage debate and discussion, and those ‘social movements’ in South Africa who have been leading the fightback against the ANC’s ‘war on the poor’, will get the attention and support that they deserve.
http://www.ukzn.za/ccs
AMANDLA!
Penny Bright
1981 Springbok Tour protestor
‘Anti-corruption/ anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/AboutCouncil/HowCouncilWorks/Elections/Documents/mayorfinalresults2013.pdf
Thinking about what’s behind this unemployment we have, the falling wages, the deepening demands and the meaner consideration for the worker. (I was watching Castle on tv the other day and his daughter was helping and I think she could stop and have drink because she had been working for five hours!!) That’s fiction isn’t it?? I know that the nice 10-15 minute break at morning and afternoon tea has gone, and people snatch lunch while at their desks or have half an hour off that allows them to imbibe something go to the toilet and then back to work.
Anyway some entertaining lectures on here http://rdwolff.com/content/advanced-applied-marxian-economics-intensive-course
Professor Richard D Wolff is a great lecturer and brings up points that will resonate with all of us. And just might cleanse out the muddy parts of the brain.
nice story about privatising public education in the UK
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/pressure-on-government-as-flagship-free-school-forced-to-close-after-inspectors-find-pupils-in-danger-of-leaving-without-being-able-to-read-and-write-properly-9003997.html
Have a listen to this.
Focus on politics 13 Dec. 2013
A malicious witch-hunt courtesy of that horrendous woman Paula Rebstock, and the unquestioned acceptance by the current States Service Commissioner Hugh Rennie. I’ve been down the road of witch hunt behaviour by psychopathic senior public servants, so I know exactly what it was like for the unfortunate Foriegn Affairs employees who found themselves in the middle of it all. They are lucky they didn’t have a caveat placed on them preventing them from revealing the truth and/or clearing their names of wrong doing as I did.
If I had my way… come the Labour-led Govt. at the end of the year, Rebstock would be sent back to America from whence she came and Rennie would be fired.
ooops my mistake. Wrong Rennie. SSC is Iain Rennie.
“For the first time in nearly half a century of polling [Pew research] a majority of citizens polled agree that the US should mind it’s own business internationally”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11172358
-“American exceptionalism [too] has declined.”
Critically ,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11172286
“The Government has clearly made it a policy to use funding as a way of exerting control over what students study” -Dr Mark Amsler, Auckland Uni, and co-president, academic, for the TEU.
“The country could lose an informed and thoughtful citizenry which understands the history and cultures of a diverse nation and supports social and economic innovation and international engagement”, and, and, and, 😎
Electric assist cycling
hmmm, might have to relocate somewhere cooler next year; Dunedin looks favourable, they even have a university library, no more exorbitant inter-loan fees. mounted an electric assist motor and battery pack to a cycle for a chap a few years ago, they are quite groovy if you don’t require as much exercise.
Not as regenerating as that wheel though.
These Americans are crazy (just reading the comments).
“Learn all about it, learn all about it! Critical Thinking Being Marginalized”
Yes poverty is bad, yes asset sales are questionable. But what really fucks me off is why doesn’t the govt take control and do the whole internet fibre roll out itself? This is a national infrastructure issue, just like roads and bridges. Whoever owns it will be able to hold the country to ransom. There aren’t many issues that define a generation internet access is a massive issue, it is so important for many reasons, business and communication, just two. Fuck chorus get the job done yourselves you useless pricks, and get it done soon.
Because then they wouldn’t be leaving it to the market and their constituents wouldn’t be able to bludge off of the rest of NZ as shareholders of Chorus.
Unfortunately, Labour is in the same camp as National as far as that goes. They’re both blinded by the ideology of the market although Labour for different reasons.
What’s going to happen in the USA? Sounds like a Detroit repeated? As people leave and seek a place to live and work, the tsunami is following them. Prof Wolff says that they leave their houses, take their children from school, and shift in desperation to another city only to find it sinking into recession again. It will reach us here. It seems there will be further change. What will it be for us?
The big financiers are cutting their investments in the USA. They are looking for somewhere else to park their monies. The hedge funds are hedging. Professor Richard D Wolff lecture –
Increasingly “isolationist” is suggested, or more B 52’s .
– from an earlier model Ghost in The Machine 😀
There is often discussion about the reason for child abuse growing etc. Two USA Profs have discussed the growing problems there and how they are converging on people on the financial side and the social side as things deteriorate.
http://rdwolff.com/content/psychology-and-economy-discussion-brecht-forum
This disussion between Dr. Harriet Fraad and Professor Richard Wolff focuses on how the continued economic deterioration (credit crisis, rising food and energy prices, falling home prices, looming recession, fiscal crises of states and cities, etc.) is interacting with the psychological stresses and strains of US life today (isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, violence, child neglect, etc.).
The discussion explores whether a potentially explosive convergence of economic and psychological crises is now under way. It also explores the possibilities and strategies of left political mobilization around these twin assaults on the US quality of life.
The updated, revised, and expanded edition of that book (published in January, 2010, by Palgrave-Macmillan) is Class Struggle on the Home Front as shown on the books page of this website.
More wobbly polls, anyone?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11172690
That’s just awesome David, Thx for pointing out. Best Labour poll result in 4 years. DC on a massive 18% for pref PM. And all from a generally Tory leaning Herald poll!!!
Just testing HTML This should be in bold
This should be in italics
This should be very underlined
If not then why bloody not ?
Because there is a filter on acceptable incoming HTML and underline isn’t on it. I can’t see a reason to add it. I suspect it would just make for messy pages.